Banks, ATMs and the tax on money you bring into Thailand

Visitors don’t need a Thai bank account: a fee-free travel card and a few large ATM withdrawals do the job. Long-stayers do need one, and since 2025 banks open them almost only for people on a one-year visa. The bigger change is tax. Stay 180 days in a year and the foreign income you bring in can be taxed, so plan your transfers before you make them.

Who this is for: visitors working out cash and cards, and anyone staying long enough to need a bank account or to become a tax resident.

Who can skip the tax half: anyone in Thailand for less than 180 days in every calendar year.

Opening a Thai bank account

The verdict: get a one-year visa first, then go to a branch near your home with every document on the list below.

Thai banks tightened account opening through 2025 to shut down mule accounts, the accounts scam gangs rent to move stolen money. Bangkok Bank said it had required a long-term visa for new foreign accounts since January 2025, and the other big banks followed.

The Bank of Thailand now requires banks to block suspicious account openings, set each customer’s daily transfer limits by how they use the account, and ask for a face scan on transfers over 50,000 baht.

Which visas can realistically open one

What banks typically ask for

• Your passport with a current visa or extension stamp. Banks scan the original.
• Proof of address. A certificate of residence from immigration (it relies on your landlord’s TM30 report) or a letter from your embassy works best. A lease on its own is often refused.
• A Thai phone number, usually registered in your own name.
• A work permit, if you’re working. Some branches want it even for a savings account.
• Sometimes a reference letter, from an employer, a condo developer or your embassy, or a small opening deposit.

The big banks foreigners commonly use are Bangkok Bank, Kasikornbank (KBank), Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), Krungsri (Bank of Ayudhya) and Krungthai. Rules vary by branch as much as by bank, and some branches send your papers to head office and ask you back a second time.

The catch: new accounts may come with low daily app-transfer limits until you have a history. If you need to move a large sum, go to the counter.

Retirees: the 800,000-baht deposit for a retirement extension has to sit in a Thai account, and banks want a long-term visa first. The retirement guide explains the order to do things in.

The alternatives: Wise and other multi-currency cards

For visitors, a multi-currency card such as Wise or Revolut beats a Thai account. You load it at home, convert at close to the mid-market rate and pay by card or withdraw from ATMs.

The catch for residents: Wise is moving personal accounts with a Thai address to its Bank of Thailand-regulated local company. Visitors whose Wise account is registered abroad aren’t affected.

• When: accounts opened since 21 January 2026 have moved already; older accounts move in December 2026.
• Payments go through baht. Sending foreign currency abroad means two conversions, and foreign payments from other people are converted to baht automatically.
• Limits: 30,000 baht a day on payments from your balances (it rises with use), and 10,000 baht per baht payment, transfer or top-up.
• Cards: existing cards on Thai-address accounts are cancelled by January 2027, and the replacements can’t take cash out of Thai ATMs.

ATMs, cash and cards

The verdict: take out the largest amount the machine allows, a few times a trip, and pay by card in malls and hotels.

The ATM fee

Every Thai ATM charges a flat fee on a foreign card, on top of anything your own bank adds.

Kasikornbank’s and Krungsri’s fees are from their own schedules for 2026. Some banks’ published tables still show 220 baht, but most machines now charge 250 or more; the screen shows the fee before you confirm. A single withdrawal is usually capped at 20,000 to 30,000 baht.

How to pay less:

• Withdraw less often. 250 baht on 20,000 is 1.25%; on 3,000 it’s more than 8%.
• Carry a Visa card as well as a Mastercard. The difference is 100 baht a withdrawal at several banks.
• Use a card that refunds ATM fees, if your bank offers one. A refund still doesn’t stop the Thai bank charging; it pays you back afterwards.
• Exchange cash instead (see below).

The conversion trap

When the ATM or card machine offers to charge you in your home currency, decline. Choose “without conversion” or pay in baht. This dynamic currency conversion uses the machine’s own rate, which is worse than your card’s, and the difference can be several per cent.

Exchange booths, ATMs or cards?

At Suvarnabhumi, skip the arrivals-hall counters and change money at the booths on the basement level near the Airport Rail Link.

Tax: when Thailand can tax your foreign money

The verdict: if you’ll spend 180 days or more here in a year, keep records of when your money was earned before you move any of it.

The 180-day rule

You’re a Thai tax resident for a calendar year (January to December) if you spend 180 days or more in Thailand during it. The days don’t have to be in a row, and your visa type doesn’t change the count. Under 180 days, Thailand taxes only income from Thai sources.

The 2024 change

Since 1 January 2024, a resident who brings foreign income into Thailand owes Thai tax on it in the year it arrives, whichever year it was earned. Before 2024, income escaped Thai tax if you waited until the following year to bring it in.

There is one carve-out. Income earned before 1 January 2024 stays under the old rule. You have to show it’s old money, so keep a bank statement from 31 December 2023 and, ideally, hold old savings in a separate account from new income.

Still a proposal: the Revenue Department has drafted a change that would exempt foreign income brought in during the year it was earned or the next one. As of October 2026 the draft still needed Cabinet approval before it could be published in the Royal Gazette, so it isn’t law. Plan on the current rules.

What counts as bringing money in

• Bank and Wise transfers into a Thai account: yes.
• ATM withdrawals in Thailand from a foreign account: treated as bringing money in.
• Spending in Thailand on a foreign card: unclear. The Revenue Department hasn’t issued final guidance, and large or regular spending looks most like income being brought in.
• Savings from before 2024, gifts and capital (rather than income): not foreign income in themselves, but you may need to prove it.

The baht value is worked out at the exchange rate on the day the money arrives.

Double tax agreements

Thailand has tax treaties with 61 countries. They don’t stop you being taxed here, but they can give you credit for income tax already paid at home, and some reserve certain income to the paying country.

Under the US treaty, for example, US Social Security is taxed only in the US. Check the treaty with your country for pensions in particular. A treaty can also bring your Thai tax to zero and still leave you needing to file.

The LTR exemption

Holders of the Long-Term Resident visa in three categories (Wealthy Global Citizen, Wealthy Pensioner and Work-from-Thailand Professional) pay no Thai tax on foreign income they bring in, under a 2022 royal decree.

The Wealthy Pensioner category needs US$80,000 a year in pension or passive income, or US$40,000 plus US$250,000 invested in Thailand, and the visa costs 50,000 baht for ten years. The visa guide covers the application.

Worked examples

Round figures, for illustration. This is general guidance, not advice on your situation.

A 60-year-old here 200 days, bringing in 600,000 baht of 2026 private pension. Resident, so the pension is taxable when it arrives. Take off the 50% expense deduction (capped at 100,000 baht) and the 60,000-baht personal allowance: 440,000 baht is taxable.

The first 150,000 is tax-free, the next 150,000 is taxed at 5% (7,500 baht) and the last 140,000 at 10% (14,000 baht): 21,500 baht before any credit for tax paid at home.

At 65 or over, a further 190,000 baht is exempt, which cuts the bill sharply.

The same person here 170 days. Not resident that year. No Thai tax on the pension, however much is transferred.

A resident bringing in 1 million baht saved in 2022. Not taxable, provided the statements show the money was in the account before 1 January 2024.

Filing basics

1. Get a tax ID. Apply at any Area Revenue Office with form L.P. 10.1, your passport and proof of address. It’s free and done in person.
2. Pick the form. PND 91 is for people whose only income is employment income; PND 90 is for everyone else, including most retirees and remote workers with foreign income.
3. File by 31 March for the previous calendar year on paper, or online through the Revenue Department’s e-filing site, which gives you about an extra week (8 April in 2026). A bill of 3,000 baht or more can be paid in three instalments.
4. Check whether you must file at all. A single person with pension or employment income of 120,000 baht or less a year, or other income of 60,000 or less, doesn’t have to.

Late payment adds a surcharge of 1.5% a month on the tax owed.

Before you move money

• Write down your residence days each year. Passport stamps alone are hard to count.
• Keep your 31 December 2023 statements for every account you might draw on.
• Separate old savings from new income, and transfer from the right one.
• Get a tax ID early if you’ll be resident, even if you expect to owe nothing.
• Watch for the exemption being published in the Royal Gazette. If it passes, the timing of transfers could matter more than the amount.